On Thursday, Scott Jones of FTV Live -- a site that reports exclusively on television news -- leaked a document circulated to some Sinclair staff suggesting they consider donating to the Sinclair Political Action Committee, "our fund that supports candidates for Congress who can influence the future of broadcasting."

No one in the KOMO newsroom received the Jan. 31 letter via email, SeattlePI has confirmed. Former KOMO employees told SeattlePI they never received a letter like the one leaked Thursday during their time with the company.

Sinclair representatives did not immediately reply to request for comment.

(Editor's note: KOMO News and SeattlePI have a content-sharing agreement.)

A source told SeattlePI that the letter goes out to Sinclair employees annually. Jones said he received copies from two different people who work in newsrooms at Sinclair-owned stations.

"If Sinclair sent these letters out to the people not working in the news department, it would not be as big of a problem," Jones said. "But asking a news person to donate to a PAC is not only wrong, it's unethical in my mind. I am floored that a media company would do this. But then again, we're talking about Sinclair."

In December, Sinclair, which currently owns or operates 193 television stations in the United States, announced it was giving 9,000 employees a one-time $1,000 bonus in response to the passage of the Republican tax plan. Some union KOMO employees were excluded because they were working under expired contracts ahead of labor negotiations.

The PAC letter, authored by Sinclair PAC Chairman David Amy, has celebrated the Federal Communications Commission under the Trump administration, saying FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, "appreciates the important role of local broadcasting enough to launch a number of politically unpopular deregulatory initiatives necessary to ensure the future of our industry."

The Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics urges members to "refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility."

Sinclair certainly has reason to champion the FCC this year.

Under Pai's leadership, FCC has emphasized deregulation, presiding over a 3-2 vote that killed Obama-era net neutrality protections in December. In November, Pai and fellow Republicans Brendan Carr and Michael O'Reilly also voted to ease the rules on owning multiple TV and radio stations in the same market. Democrats Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, the only women on the commission, cast dissenting votes in both cases, which were viewed as wins for pro-Trump Sinclair.

Sinclair was fined $13.3 million by the FCC in December for running over 1,700 commercials on its stations over six months that were designed to look like news broadcasts without properly identifying them as paid content. That fine was perceived as a "slap on the wrist," by Mignon, who accused Pai, Carr and O'Reilly of cutting Sinclair a break by not issuing the maximum allowable fine of $82 million, three percent of Sinclair's annual sales.

"In light of this substantial history of failure to comply with our policies and the sheer number ofviolations before the agency now, the immediate notice should seek the highest fines permissible under our rules," Mignon wrote in a dissenting opinion. "But instead of doing so, we offer unreasonable and suspicious favor to a company with a clear record of difficulty complying with the law."

Pai disagreed, writing that the $13.3 million fine was "more than three times any penalty that has ever been imposed for violating our sponsorship identification rules."

FCC commissioners are appointed by the president, but need Senate confirmation in order to serve a five-year term. The president also appoints one of the commissioners to serve as chairperson.